Card of the Day: 1995 Edge Entertainment – Street Sharks Series 1 – Ripster – Promo #3

How To Spot A Fake Ludwell Denny 1990 Pro Set #338 Promo

The odds of you finding this card out in the wild are about as good as the Phillies calling me up asking if I’d like to play first base. Its not likely to happen.

As I mentioned in my 2021 Leaf Pro Set College Football Blaster Box Break, Ludwell Denny founded Pro Set in 1988. Between 1988 and 1994 Pro Set issued card products for the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, and PGA Tour. Their parody “Flopps” promo set was about as close as they got to making MLB cards. Outside of sports they made a variety of entertainment products as well. Pro Set went bankrupt after 1994. In February 2021 it was announced that Leaf Trading Cards had acquired the Pro Set trademark, and quickly began using it on their products.

Mr. Denny had a card of himself printed in 1990. Don’t bother ripping through old packs hoping to find it. They were used as promotional handouts. Almost like a business card. Although an official print run was never released, supposedly one sheet amounting to (90) cards was made. How many were actually handed out is a number we will never know.

Pro Set was notorious for their errors, misprints, corrections, short prints, variations, etc… Sometimes I think they did this on purpose just to keep collectors on their toes.

The Ludwell Denny promo card is one die-hard Pro Set collectors would love to add to their collection. I’ve only seen one show up for sale, and it has been on eBay for years with an incredibly high asking price.

No authentic alternate versions of this card are known to exist. No errors, misprints, corrections, short prints, and/or variations. What you see is what you get. However, there are counterfeits floating around.

The differences drastically stick out when an authentic card is placed side-by-side with a counterfeit one.

Characteristics of a counterfeit card include dark coloring on both the front and back.

The font is completely different where it says “Ludwell Denny Head Coach Giants” on the front. Turning the card over you can see the font used for “Ludwell Denny Head Coach” is also quite different. The font used for the card number isn’t correct either.

Counterfeits use a dot instead of a dash to separate the words “Coach” and “Giants” on the front.

Numerous misspellings and grammatical errors totally pollute the description on the back of the counterfeit.

On the back of a counterfeit the words “National Football League Players Association” surround the football image near the bottom. Authentic examples do not have this wording.

Authentic front

Authentic back

Counterfeit front

Counterfeit back

Inside Bridgestone Golf’s Cancelled 2020 Promo Set

The hobby saw a surge of new collectors/flippers/investors in 2020. With the rise in popularity, it makes perfect sense for companies to issue cards to promote almost anything.

Bridgestone Golf’s days of making trading cards lasted about as long as Ryan Leaf’s NFL career. Ok. Maybe Ryan Leaf had a bit of a longer run. But not by much.

In November 2020, Bridgestone Golf thought it would be a good idea to print up some cards to use for promotional purposes.

The retro-style set consists of (5) cards and (1) sticker.

• Tiger Woods #1
• Fred Couples #2
• Bryson DeChambeau #3
• Matt Kuchar #4
• Tiger Woods & Fred Couples #5

Whoever designed the set must have been a big fan of 1990 Topps Baseball. The card’s border clearly is a homage to that set. Photos have been replaced with animated images. Backs provide some stats while advertising Bridgestone Golf balls.

What led to the downfall of this promotion and denied it to collectors? According to a Bridgestone Golf Sales Rep it was Tiger’s agent. Bridgestone Golf is a sponsor of Tiger Woods, but apparently that doesn’t allow them to make cards of him. Tiger’s agent pointed out that his client has an exclusive trading card deal with Upper Deck, and demanded if the sets weren’t pulled legal action would take place. Deciding to save on legal fees, Bridgestone Golf cancelled the promotion and very few cards saw the light of day.

Bridgestone Golf pulled all photos of this promotion off of their social media. Although a Tweet from Darren Rovell briefly talking about it is still visible.

Its too bad this set was DOA. I know there are a lot of golf collectors who would’ve liked to get their hands on one.

Card of the Day: Tiger Woods 2001 Upper Deck Golf – 2001 National VIP Promo

Don’t Mess With This Santa – Parkside’s 2019 Santa Claus Promo Card

Parkside Collectibles is a new card company.  Right now they specialize in making cards for the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league, Major League Lacrosse, and Santa Claus.

Santa Claus has been appearing on cards for decades.  His appearance on modern day sports cards began with his 1989 Pro Set Football Promo.  Since then, pretty much every card company that ever existed has made cards of Santa Claus.  He has quite the following, and collectors aren’t afraid to spend tons on that rare Santa Claus card they need for their collection.

Between 12/1/19 and 12/25/19 anyone who made a purchase on the Parkside Collectibles website received this special Santa Claus card.  It features an artistic Santa Claus holding a basketball in one hand, a red sack of sports equipment in the other, all while wearing a Big3 Enemies jersey.  According to Parkside Collectibles, (500) cards were printed.  A handful were also given away to some of their social media followers.  Check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

I wouldn’t mess with a Santa Claus wearing a jersey that says “Enemies” on it.

Card of the Day: Monty Sheldon Artball Painter 2015 Topps Custom Promo Card

Card of the Day: 1993 Topps Star Wars Galaxy Yoda/C-3PO Promo #3

Card of the Day: Mr. Red 2015 Topps All-Star Game FanFest Promo

Card of the Day: Marty’s Sports Card Exchange 2014 Upper Deck 25th Anniversary Promo

The 35th National: Day #3

Today was my last day for attending the 35th National Sports Collectors Convention.  The weekends can get quite crowded that’s why I usually stay for the first three days.  I had it set in my mind to get an autograph, open some more Topps and Upper Deck products, and get more promos today.  And I did just that.

I still have a sealed box of 2014 Topps Minis Baseball to break open.  Over the next several weeks I’ll be showing off what I pulled from the various packs and boxes that I purchased.

Here are the highlights from Day #3.

While checking out the autograph lineup for the day, I ran into sports artist Monty Sheldon.  He’s known for his really cool painted artballs and sketch cards.  Monty Sheldon is also responsible for many of those 1/1 art/patch cards you find in Gypsy Queen.  It was really great to finally meet him in person.

Jim Thome (far left) is one of 8 MLB players in history to hit over 600 career home runs.  I wanted to get his autograph on my bat ever since I saw he was coming.  TRISTAR was moving people through the line very fast.  He was already onto the next item when I tried to get a picture.

Kenny Lofton

Warren Sapp

Wade Boggs

At lunch time I opened one of my boxes of 2014 Allen & Ginter.  I still have to look through a lot before I show off the entire box break, but I did pull my first Rip Card.  Its of Freddie Freeman #’ed/75.  I haven’t ripped it… yet.

Upper Deck was doing their wrapper redemption program again this morning at 10:25 a.m.  Today’s promos were of Michael Jordan, Roberto Osuna, Frank Thomas, Teddy Bridgewater, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and my Amazon.com card was of Reggie Jackson.

To get my promo pack from Upper Deck today, I decided to open another pack of 2014 Upper Deck SP Game-Used Edition Golf.  Inside was a Michelle Wie Tour Gear Dual Shirt #’ed/35.  I also pulled a Victor Dubuisson First Tee Rookies Auto #’ed/199 redemption.